After a more than 20-year absence, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program is returning, and School Resource Officers (SROs) are assigned to all schools in Henry County.
Sheriff Wayne Davis worked with school officials to assign SROs to each o=county school and also to fit the D.A.R.E. program into the school year’s schedule.
Davis said bringing the program back was one of his first initiatives after learning he would be sworn in as interim sheriff.
“I immediately reached out to the D.A.R.E. training program to visit their training center, and I arranged and scheduled to train three of our deputies to graduate from the D.A.R.E. program,” he said.
The intensive, two-week course required officer-teachers to be knowledgeable about such matters and show their competency as educators.
“So, they really put them through their paces over those two weeks,” Davis said. The training was necessary to prepare officers to lead the classroom lessons that teach youngsters how to stay drug-free and resist peer pressure.
The D.A.R.E. program began in 1983 and quickly became the most popular drug prevention program for youth nationwide. The main curriculum involves officers providing once-a-week instruction to students for about an hour. A typical D.A.R.E. program covers a number of topics including the effects of drugs, techniques for resisting peer pressure to use illegal substances, stress management, and positive alternatives to drug use.
After a hiatus in local schools, Davis said he decided to bring the program back because he believes youngsters must be educated about the dangers of substance abuse.
“If we are not educating our children about the dangers of substance abuse, then we’re promoting the next generation of addicts,” he said.
Davis said this D.A.R.E. program will be substantially different than the previous one which focused exclusively on drug and alcohol education.
“The new D.A.R.E. program begins its foundation with teaching children at the K-12 level and reinforcing how to just make good life decisions from which they can build upon,” he said.
Davis said it will focus on the deputies being mentors to the students to help youngsters focus on good life decisions.
“Once we start to work on that, then we can begin to educate them on an array of topics in the D.A.R.E. program. They include not only drug and alcohol awareness, but vaping, which is an issue in our schools, online and social media safety, bullying prevention, and mental health issues for preteens and teens,” he said.
Davis believes the well-rounded program goes further than just saying, “‘These are the dangers of drugs and alcohol.’ It builds upon the foundation of that encouragement and support to make good decisions in life
The program begins this year, according to Davis, who has worked with the school division to fit it into the school year’s schedule.
